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Advice needed, ATI virgin considering the EPIC HALLOWEEN DEAL - MSI 6970

JButlerUK

JButlerUK

JButlerUK

Associate
Joined
6 Jul 2011
Posts
369
Location
South Yorkshire
Hi guys.

Been posting a lot these last few days as i am looking to upgrade my PC. Was going for a major overhaul but funds are tight atm so looking to spend £300 on a nice GPU.

I saw this:

MSI ATI Radeon HD 6970 Lightning 2048MB GDDR5

...and must admit it gave me a little chubby ;)

Any advice for a complete novice of ATI? i have always had nVidia but i think this deal is sweet so just want an impartial!!!! view please.

Deal in facts not opinions please. If these is something better for £300 then what and why?

Cheers.
 
There is nothing better for around £300 unless you can to spend more and get the GTX580 which is a faster.

ATI cards are great.

I was what you call a Nvidia Fan Boy for a number of years through the 7600 to the 8800GT and 8800GTS. But I decided to go ATI for my HD5770 as it was on offer at the time and I couldn't be happier.

The lightning version you want to get is highly overclockable, runs very cool and has a unique PCB which allows for higher operating temps and higher overclocks.

ATI do have a bad reputation for bad drivers but over the past year or so they have become a lot better with their drivers and driver releases. There BETA drivers can be a bit hasty and sometimes rushed because of big game releases like BF3 and MW3 but apart from that, the revised drivers which are released every month or so are great.

For example, over the past 2 years my HD5770 has been on the market it, the drivers from ATI have increased its stock performance by around 25% thanks to better drivers.

The 6970 is a great card and will last your a good few years before you even have to think about upgrading and yes it is a sweet deal on the Lightning version too!

GET IT! :P

P.S. Just make sure you are running a good processor like the i5-2500k or an older i7 with good DDR3 memory and a branded PSU with at least 650 watts of power running through it to stop any bottlenecks appearing and unwanted crap power draws happening xD
 
Thanks for that.

I am mid updgrading my PC so its gonna be GPU this month and Mobo and chip next.

I have a 8800GTS at the minute lol, so should be a nice upgrade on that.

I am still 50:50 tho, will have to think about it.

What i dont get is how this has 1500+ processor cores and the GTX 570 has like 500 and its still pretty close. Anyone explain?
 
Quite a few games do favour Nvidia, but ATI cards don't rely on the CPU as much as Nvidia cards do, so less stress on your CPU.

GTX560Ti is on par with the 6950

GTX570 is on par with the 6970

I would still get the 6970 if you have a rather weak CPU unless your running the Intel I5-2500K or better xD
 
:confused:

CinderzFTW said:
Quite a few games do favour Nvidia, but ATI cards don't rely on the CPU as much as Nvidia cards do, so less stress on your CPU.

GTX560Ti is on par with the 6950

GTX570 is on par with the 6970

I would still get the 6970 if you have a rather weak CPU unless your running the Intel I5-2500K or better xD
Click to expand...

Don't you mean:

Amd cards perform better with Amd Cpu's due to the lower clock speeds which can hold Nvidia cards back.

Nvidia cards are better utilised in a highly clocked i5(2500K)/i7 system as will an Amd card of course.

Performance these days between Nvidia and Amd is game dependant, quite a few games favour Amd cards too.;)

I'm with VaderDSL's view myself, get a good 2GB 560/6950 and overclock it, it won't be far behind at all for much less cash unless you don't want the hassle(is there any?) with overclocking/unlocking.

You could keep your eyes peeled for MSI 6950 2Gb frozrs that can be had for about ~£185 from time to time here and other places. You will be hard pushed to notice the difference.
 
sapphire 6950 toxic and pocket the change, unlock and oc it and you'll have 580 matching/beating(game dpendent) performance for fraction of the price.

by the by might be better going CPU/mb/ram upgrade first.

oh and what is your current psu? Don't want a cheap/underpowered psu blowing up you nice new gpu/CPU/etc.
 
Is it really that great a deal?

Every other 6970 is below £300 anyway and the OCUK one is £30 less with the same spec.

Looks like all it's done is come back in line with the other 6970 and is £30 more than stock because of the flash cooler.
 
Hotwired said:
Is it really that great a deal?

Every other 6970 is below £300 anyway and the OCUK one is £30 less with the same spec.

Looks like all it's done is come back in line with the other 6970 and is £30 more than stock because of the flash cooler.
Click to expand...
To be honest, I'd rather trying to find a MSI 6950 2GB Twin FrozRIII for under £220, and put the rest toward a 60/64GB SSD.
 
My last god knows how many cards now have been Ati.

I used to only be Geforce cards up untill the Gefore 3 ti 500.

Been ATI ever since, starting with the Radeon 9800 pro.
 
JButlerUK said:
Hi guys.

Been posting a lot these last few days as i am looking to upgrade my PC. Was going for a major overhaul but funds are tight atm so looking to spend £300 on a nice GPU.

I saw this:

MSI ATI Radeon HD 6970 Lightning 2048MB GDDR5

...and must admit it gave me a little chubby ;)

Any advice for a complete novice of ATI? i have always had nVidia but i think this deal is sweet so just want an impartial!!!! view please.

Deal in facts not opinions please. If these is something better for £300 then what and why?

Cheers.
Click to expand...

Get the 6970, you wont be dissapointed :)
 
Pointless card frankly, firstly all the fancy military grade parts, fine if you want to cool it under LN2 and shoot for 1.3-1.4Ghz speeds and single 3dmark runs, in real life it makes no difference over a £30 cheaper card. Nice cooler, but still expensive, 10-15% more performance than a 6950, which costs 20-30% less.

The top end cards are rarely good value, the 4870x2 actually was, it was cheaper than 2x 4870's separately, offered similar performance and was great overall.

Either way, don't buy yet, december through Jan is the time for new AMD cards, meaning, in just over a month you could potentially be buying a card thats 70-80% faster, for the same price.

This is the worst possible time to upgrade, even if new cards weren't coming out, 6950 is a much better value card, and 2gb 560ti's, horrific option, £80-90 more at the moment for 1gb extra mem, which should cost £10 more, and takes the price above a 6950 which is a much faster card in the vast majority of games.


If absolutely, utterly desperate, the 6950 is easily the best value high end card around, if you can wait 4-6 weeks, new cards should move prices around on current gen, both AMD and Nvidia, and potentially have great new cards that are far better options anyway, you can't really lose, 6970 for far less, or 7970 with far more performance for the same price, win win.

Its unclear exactly when(rumoured the 6th Dec) and exactly which cards, (mid or high end) but it shouldn't matter. if the midrange matches the current high end, the current high end price will drop, so the midend has to drop, etc, etc.
 
drunkenmaster said:
Pointless card frankly, firstly all the fancy military grade parts, fine if you want to cool it under LN2 and shoot for 1.3-1.4Ghz speeds and single 3dmark runs, in real life it makes no difference over a £30 cheaper card. Nice cooler, but still expensive, 10-15% more performance than a 6950, which costs 20-30% less.

The top end cards are rarely good value, the 4870x2 actually was, it was cheaper than 2x 4870's separately, offered similar performance and was great overall.

Either way, don't buy yet, december through Jan is the time for new AMD cards, meaning, in just over a month you could potentially be buying a card thats 70-80% faster, for the same price.

This is the worst possible time to upgrade, even if new cards weren't coming out, 6950 is a much better value card, and 2gb 560ti's, horrific option, £80-90 more at the moment for 1gb extra mem, which should cost £10 more, and takes the price above a 6950 which is a much faster card in the vast majority of games.


If absolutely, utterly desperate, the 6950 is easily the best value high end card around, if you can wait 4-6 weeks, new cards should move prices around on current gen, both AMD and Nvidia, and potentially have great new cards that are far better options anyway, you can't really lose, 6970 for far less, or 7970 with far more performance for the same price, win win.

Its unclear exactly when(rumoured the 6th Dec) and exactly which cards, (mid or high end) but it shouldn't matter. if the midrange matches the current high end, the current high end price will drop, so the midend has to drop, etc, etc.
Click to expand...

Most sense i have heard in a long time.

Thanks.

Im gonna get a 560ti for now and see what the future holds :)
 
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